THE AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL AWAKENING   321
Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston, joined with edu-
cators, reformers, and others in insisting that free schools
and effective education be furnished them. This privilege
they claimed not as mere charity but as a natural right
and the most effective means of social reform. " There caa
be no real liberty," they held, "without a wide diffusion
of real intelligence; therefore, the members of a republic
should all be alike instructed in the nature and character of
their equal rights and duties, as human beings and as citi-
zens " (Working-Man's Advocate, New York, March6,1830).
Another important factor in the development of public
education was that represented in the activities of a large
number of popular conventions. These gatherings were
called together upon various occasions throughout the
period by associations of citizens and teachers, to take
action toward furthering tax support of schools and a
general system of public education. Upwards of a hun-
dred of these societies were formed and prepared addresses
and memorials to the legislatures. The earliest organiza-
tion of prominence was the Pennsylvania Society for the
Promotion of Public Schools, formed at Philadelphia in
1827, whose advocacy helped to effect the ultimate estab-
lishment of a common school system in the state and to
develop similar movements in other Middle States. Like-
wise the Hartford Society for the Improvement of Public
Schools was founded in the same year and became a model
for New England groups. The widest influence, however,
was probably that exerted by the Western Academic
Institute, organized at Cincinnati two years later, which
soon extended its influence into every corner of Ohio
and nearly everywhere else throughout the West. Similar
efforts appeared in North Carolina, Virginia, and other
commonwealths of the South.